Gratiot's Veterans Affairs gets a new home

At another special meeting on Thursday, Gratiot County Commissioners approved a new home for the Veteran’s Affairs department.

The new site, owned by Commissioner Scott Showers, is at 125 East Newark St., just a few doors down from the courthouse.

The rent is $600 a month and includes utilities.

Administrator Jeff Huff pointed out that Showers did not even mention the building but that he and others knew it was available and began looking into it.

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Veterans Affairs Director Rodolfo Diaz-Pons had said that his current office is basically a closet, and is not handicapped accessible.

He asked that the county find a new location near the courthouse as the vets often have need to visit other offices in the courthouse. He also asked that it be handicapped accessible.

The Newark Street building meets those requirements.

“It’s the nicest one in Gratiot County for that price,” Huff said. “It has two big rooms and a reception area.”

Huff also said that a three year lease is what is requested, “But I’m more inclined to two years.”

He explained that he didn’t want to tie the county down if changes occur within the next two years.

Commissioner Jan Bunting however, asked if the county shouldn’t look at something to buy. There are vacant buildings in Ithaca, she said.

Commission Chair Laura McCollum said that is an option but in order to make some other building accessible to the handicapped for example, it might prove expensive.

“This is ready to go,” she said. “In two years, we can look at other options.”

Bunting then wanted to know if the county could break the lease and Commissioner John Renneberg said Showers would like the same ability to break the lease.

About $20,000 has been budgeted for the upcoming year for the lease and for the new part time secretary, which had been approved by the board.

Diaz-Pons had told the board that he would like to move into his new office the third week of October.

With the absence of Showers, the vote was unanimous to lease the building for two years.

In another matter, the board postponed a decision on paving of the sheriff’s parking lot.

Huff explained that it needed to be repaved at a cost of about $40,000 and if left alone for a few more years, the cost would jump to $80,000.

The road commission and three businesses had all recommended the same type of repaving, the commission was told.

But Bunting, noting that “there are homeless people living in tents” said the budget had originally only approved repaving a small part.

She was told that it now needs more work.

“Is this from windmill money?” she asked.

Huff told her that it all comes from the same pot.

“But if you didn’t have windmill money where would the money come from?”

It was explained that the money would come from tax revenues.

Noting how Obamacare is costing businesses so much money, Bunting said, “we’ve spent money every single month.”

She was asked if she thought the parking lot did not need repair.

“I’d like the residents to take a tour of the parking lot,” she said.

Because the county was just presented with the plan on Thursday, Commissioner John Renneberg asked for the matter to be postpone and placed on the next meeting’s agenda.

The full board agreed.

About the Author

Linda Gittleman’s alma mater is Western Michigan University where she majored in speech and English and her hometown is Alma. She’s worked at the Morning Sun's Alma office for more than 20 years. Reach the author at lgittleman@michigannewspapers.com
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